This morning I bimbled about getting a stew in the slow cooker for later, making a picnic and dealing with the chickens in daylight. The kids did some drawing and also bimbled about really. Our plan was to head to Julie’s where she was waiting for a bulk food order to be delivered and then head to the woods for a walk if it arrived early enough to allow time.
But then Julie rang to say she’d forgotten she’d booked the farrier for Honey the pony and was there an way we could swing by the stables on our way over, bring Honey out of the field and up to the stable and meet the farrier. We could either ask him to turn her out again after he’d finished or hang around to watch and turn her out ourselves. We decided to wait and watch as it would be quite interesting.
I confessed straight away to Davies and Scarlett that I was quite nervous about this. I’m not really a horsey person, they are a bit flightly and nervy, very big (well most are) and have big sharp teeth and long scary kicky legs and hooves which they could hurt me with. I am not too bad with Honey as she stands shorter than me which helps and has never been remotely flighty around me before. I steeled myself with pep talks about women who can hold tarantulas and snakes on a Monday are certainly capable of putting a head collar on a pony and leading it up to a stable on a Tuesday. And Scarlett shared with me her secret for success ‘you need to just not show her you’re scared’.
So we arrived and while I rang Julie I eyed up the great big dog sitting, unchained, outside the farm house eyeing us with interest. The kids got out of the car and very rapidly got back in again as the dog came flying across the carpark straight for them. I shreiked at them to close the door behind them and the dog circled the car a few times. It was like that bloody scene in Cujo!!! (A film I should have never, ever watched). Julie assured me he was friendly and at that point the farmer came out and went off with the dog anyway so I was safe to get out of the car. Julie advised getting the headcollar, told me which way up it went, said I should grab a handful of feed and take it to the field in Honey’s bowl, call her, let her out of the field and then slip the head collar on while she ate. Infact, she said, I could probably give the headcollar to Scarlett and she could do it.
Except she’d failed to mention the lower bar of the electric fence was secured all the way round and had to be unclipped at the end and then loosened all the way round before attempting to get Honey out. So I called her, she came, I took down the top bar and trod on the lower one expecting her to step over it but she refused. She backed up a few steps and I half expected her to jump it but she then got all scared when Grace, the crazy big white horse she shares a field with came over and got all arsey. We totally missed our chance as then Grace flatly refused to let Honey anywhere near us. She did pawing at the ground with her front hoof, showed me her teeth, did lots of snorting and head tossing and generally totally succceeded in both making me scared and ensuring I showed it too!
Then the farrier arrived so I sent Davies up to meet him to ask if he would possibly come and help us get her out of the field. He was a youngish guy, very laddish and charming and laughed at me explaining I was scared stupid of Grace. He said she was fine and they shoe her too but agreed to get Honey out for me. Except Grace butted at him too and finally bit Honey on the bum and turned back to the farrier before he decided it wasn’t going to happen either and he’d come back another day!
No idea if I freaked Grace out and that meant she was too mad to respond to anyone or if she was just having a mad day but I’m really glad I didn’t pep talk myself into getting in the field as I’d have been terrified if she nudged me like that. I do not have any plans to add Horse Whispered to my CV at this stage.
So we headed to Julie’s to share the tale. The kids all played together while Julie and I sorted out her big food delivery which needed seperating into the 6 different people’s orders it covered and checking off against the delivery note and the order forms. We had lunch and Chris came home so I sat chatting to him for quite a while. It was a really nice afternoon :).
We left in time to nip home before swimming to check the dinner and then back out again to the pool. Davies had a good time in the pool and a good lesson but I only managed 35 lengths thanks to a run in with Scarlett and the instructor, Carolyn. Davies finished his time in the big pool with a length so I was swimming infront of him on my back cheering him on and suddenly Scarlett appeared in the water beside me. I took her back to the side and waved Davies off to his lesson when suddenly Carolyn appeared looking furious and gave Scarlett a real lecture. Apparently she’d just run off after her lesson before being told she could go. And she told her off for leaping into the lane swimming area too. She did really shout and everyone nearby stopped to watch and listen which was embarrasing for me and really humiliating for Scarlett. She sobbed for about five minutes afterwards :(. Another mum came over to say she thought it had been unnecessarily harsh but I did see her point really. Scarlett claims she heard Carolyn say ‘you can go’ so went but realised afterwards she hadn’t been talking to her. This could well be one of Tarly’s rather creative ‘I thought she said’s or may be true, I suspect she did indeed just run off, confident she knew where I was and just came to find me. I think she was very shocked at still being shouted at by Carolyn after she’d reached me too as usually both my kids assume once they are with me nothing can touch them.
I explained why Carolyn had been angry and that while she is having her lesson and until Carolyn knows she has handed her back to me she is responsible for Scarlett and as such if she didn’t look after her properly and know where she was and that she was safe I would be really angry with her. I likened it to Tarly deciding she didn’t want to stay at Rainbows one day and just leaving and coming home. I know she could safely walk from Rainbows to our house alone but I would be furious if she did it, both with her but mainly with the leaders for not realising she’d gone or stopping her.
Scarlett always recovers really quickly and her little friend she plays with was hanging around waiting for her while I was talking to her and comforting her so she went off again to play. Hopefully she’ll be okay in next weeks lesson as she does tend to get spooked by being shouted at by someone else and it was a really big rant, but I understand it was partially worry aswell as anger.
I went off to do some more lengths but I’d lost my stride, and 10 minutes of my time and decided my heart wasn’t in it and I was still convalesing from my cold so climbed out after 35 and watched Scarlett on the diving boards for a bit instead before going over to meet Davies from his lesson.
I’d forgotten the shower gel so we got dressed quick and came home. Ady was already home which took the pressure off the whole getting ready for my course timings, so I dished out some stew for the kids, made myself a cup of tea and some toast and had that before heading off to my course.
Davies had Sea Scout Cubs which he is really enjoying. One of the other lads was invested tonight but I suspect Davies wasn’t due to missing last week which was presumably when they were informed. It’s half term next week so hopefully he’ll be invested after that. When Ady collected him he brought him over to one of the other lads to confirm to him that Davies doesn’t go to school as apparently the lad had refused to believe him. Ady and Scarlett had watched last night’s Life while Davies was out.
My course was interesting again. We were focussing again on recycling but subsequent sessions will be more about other areas of waste prevention which I’m looking forward to. We did some mind mapping in groups at the end which was interesting and next week we have a field trip to the local MRF (recycling sorting centre) on Monday which I’m looking forward to.
Home for a late dinner and thanks to getting caught up with myself online a pretty late night. So I’m off to bed.